Angelology and
Satanology
As far back as I can remember there has always been the
good against the bad and millions of dollars have been made off of this concept
of good versus evil. It has made television producers and writers very rich,
but to believers in the Church today it becomes much more than just the good
against the bad (evil). We all at one time or another have envisioned God in
heaven looking down watching us and a little red man with pointed ears and tail
trying to mess us up.
Dualism assumes that there are two separate entities-good
and evil- and they are equally powerful. Religious (ethical) dualism refers to
these two entities as God who represents the good entity and Satan who
represents the evil entity. However, although some view God and Satan as equals
(dualism) in reality Satan is not equal to God Almighty and according to the Scriptures
there is no dualism. Satan was defeated at the cross when Jesus took on flesh
and blood, “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power
of death, that is the devil” (Heb 2:14). There is no equal, Satan was
decisively defeated at the cross.
Satan was created by God. When God created the world, he
“saw everything that he had made, and beheld, it was very good” (Gen 1:31). Have
you ever heard in church “God doesn’t create junk?” When the world was created
it did not have any evil in it at that time. It was perfect and everything in
it and on it was without blemish. Ezekiel
describes Satan who was an angel as a “signet of perfection, full of wisdom and
perfect in beauty; blameless in your ways from the day you were created” (Eze
28: 12, 15). Towns, further describes him “as a being with power of personality
and the freedom of choice” (Towns, p 361). Just like us, Satan and the other
angels were created with the freedom to choose. Without freedom of choice we would not be able to
truly worship and praise God, we would be just going through the motions as
robots. But just like Adam, between the creation of the world and the “fall” of
man as described in Genesis 3, Satan rebelled against God and sinned. Satan
wanted to ascend into heaven above the stars of God (Isa 14:13), he became
prideful and arrogant and sinned against God and God banished him from heaven
and he became the ruler of this world and the prince of the power of the air
(John 12:31; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2). Never
to return again to heaven and he took nearly a third of all the other angels
with him who also rebelled against their maker.
Ezekiel 28 deals with the position of Satan prior to the
fall, and Isaiah 14:12-17 focuses on Satan’s attempt to grasp the throne of
God. There are six common objections to these passages: 1) Isaiah is referring
not to Satan but to a historical king of Babylon; 2) future king of Babylon; 3)
Sennacherib; 4) Solely Satan; 5) King in the time of Isaiah with Satan behind
him; and 6) a future king and Satan behind him. I agree
with Dr. Towns when he says “that the first three cannot be accepted in light
of verses 12-15, which strongly indicate a person who possesses much more power
than a mere man” (Towns, p 364). The
fifth view can be rejected because it speaks about the futuristic time for
Israel and not as a contemporary period to Isaiah’s day. The 6th and
final view does have some credibility because we have seen in scripture where
men have been “energized” by an external force such as when Satan moved in the
mind of Peter in order to stop Christ from going to the cross in which Jesus
rebukes Peter and Satan. I agree with Dr. Towns and believe that the 4th
view is the most logical choice and thus Isaiah 14 must be referring to the
fall of Satan. The author also responds to the objection of Ezekiel 28 when he
refers to an “earthly king represents poor exegesis and gross oversight of
phrases that extend well beyond the human realm and that Ezekiel is looking
beyond the King of Tyre to the Satanic force that controls him”( Towns,
p 364-365 ).
Satan has great power but unlike God he is not
omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. He is limited by God’s control. In the
book of Job Satan could only do what God allowed him to do in the life of Job
(Job 1:12; 2:6). Not only is Satan limited in what he can do, these verses
demonstrate the fact that Satan is subservient to Him.
Some believers today
when they sin claim that the devil made them do it. However, scripture tells us
that Satan is the supreme “tempter” (Matt 4:3; 1 Thess 3:5). Only when we yield
to the temptation do we sin (Jam 1:15). Satan doesn’t make us sin we choose to
sin. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that “no temptation has overtaken us that
is not common to man and that God is faithful who will not allow us to be
tempted beyond what we are able (1 Cor 10:13). Through Christ we have the
ability to fight the temptation that easily entangle us and gives us the power
through His Spirit to fight Satan and to make the right choices.
Word Count: 884
Bibliography
Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology,
Grand Rapids, Michigan Baker Publishing Group 2001, Print
The Open Bible New
Amercian Standard, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville 1977, Print
Towns, Elmer L. Theology for Today, Cengage Learning, Mason
Ohio 2008 Print
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